Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/25/2017

Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, has opened up a significant lead over his Democrat opponent, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, according to the latest polls. Mr. Gillespie is now running eight points ahead of Mr. Northam, with less than two weeks to go before the election.

In other news, Catalans in France have arranged to open up their homes to Catalonian leader Carles Puigdemont so that he can establish a government in exile across the border in the event the Spanish government forces him to flee the country.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to AF, Charles Low, Dean, Dora, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» Spain Economic Pain: Catalonia Bank Issues Major Warning as Country Tops EU Deficit List
 
USA
» Anti-Pipeline Academic Develops How-to Video Game Promoting Eco Terrorism
» Assange Tweet-Trolls ‘Future President’ Hillary Clinton
» Las Vegas Shooter’s Laptop Missing Its Hard Drive
» Man Died of Flesh Eating Bacteria After Helping With Hurricane Harvey Relief
» New Hampshire: Why Are Police Ignoring Evidence That Mosque is Preaching Jihad? (Video)
» Police Search for Driver Who Ran Down Pedestrians
» Poll: Gillespie Takes a Huge Lead in Virginia Governor Race
» Senator McCain Helped Fund FBI Plot to Frame Trump
» South Dakota: Muslim Who Made Threatening Gun Video at Christian Conference
» Ypsilanti Suspect Linked to Islamic State Group
 
Europe and the EU
» Bad Rabbit Ransomware: ‘This is a Targeted Attack’
» Catalonia Crisis Sparks Tourism Alert
» EU Ripped Apart by Catalonia: Former French PM Warns Independence Will Open Pandora’s Box
» Finnish Interior Minister Invites Tariq Ramadan, (Accused of Rape) To Helsinki Panel Discussion on Islam/Radicalization Prevention…
» French Catalans Set Up Safe Houses So Puigdemont Can Rule Government in Exile
» Italy Rupturing as More Regions Want Independent Powers From Rome
» Over by Christmas? EU Holds Breath as As Far-Right Party Set for Coalition in Austria
» The EU Lectures Journalists About PC Reporting
» UK: Another Rotherham Grooming Gang in Court for Raping Young Girls
» UK: College Correctly Bans Faced Covered Islamic Supremacist at Open Evening Event…
» UK: Former BBC Chief News Correspondent Takes Aim at Citizen Journalism
» ‘You’ve Left Us No Option’ Catalonia Will be Forced to Declare Republic Fumes Leader
 
Middle East
» Thanks to Obama, America is Two Steps Behind Iran in Middle East
 
South Asia
» Rohingya Refugee Crisis: The Role of Islamist Terrorists
 
Australia — Pacific
» Muslim Father Charged With Funding Islamic State Was ‘In Regular Contact With Feared Foreign Jihadist in Syria’ — As He’s Refused Bail
 
Immigration
» Austria Arrests Migrant Suspected of 70 Murders
» French Police Incapable of Stopping Calais Migrants Making Bid for Britain — Shock Report
» German Mainstream Media Calls Migrant Crime Area ‘No-Gone Zone’
» Greek Islands Bursting at the Seams
» Maryland: Muslim Immigrant & Developer Face Lawsuit for Selling Homes to Muslims Only
» Pro-Migrant NGOs Call for Greece to Release Migrants Onto Mainland
 
Culture Wars
» ‘Dislike’ And ‘Unfriendliness’ Can be Hate Crimes, UK Police Confirm
» Europe: Journalists Against Free Speech
» Prominent Conservative Artists Blacklisted Because of Involvement With Alt Hero Comics Series
» UK: Theresa May Insists ‘Pregnant Women’ Term ‘Acceptable’ After Government’s Transgender Request to UN
» UK’s Hateful Hate-Crime Hub
 
General
» 400 Scientific Papers Published in 2017 Support a Skeptical Position on Climate Alarm
» ‘Dark Future’ IMF Boss Warns Earth Will ‘Toasted and Roasted’ Due to Climate Change
» The Global Warming Thought Police Want Climate Skeptics in ‘Jail’
 

Spain Economic Pain: Catalonia Bank Issues Major Warning as Country Tops EU Deficit List

SPAIN had the highest budget deficit in the EU last year, according to new statistics, while the ongoing Catalonia crisis threatens to plunge the Spanish economy into further uncertainty.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Anti-Pipeline Academic Develops How-to Video Game Promoting Eco Terrorism

An academic at a public university created a computer game that allows players to torch oil pipelines and block energy projects to bring awareness to climate issues.

Elizabeth LaPensée, an assistant professor at Michigan State University, created a game earlier this month called Thunderbird Strike that allows players to use lightning bolts to destroy pipelines and trucks. The video game is scheduled to debut at the imagineNATIVE film and media arts festival later this month.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Assange Tweet-Trolls ‘Future President’ Hillary Clinton

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has apparently wished Hillary Clinton a happy birthday on the eve of her 70th… by reminding the 2016 presidential candidate of her failure.

On Tuesday, Assange retweeted former presidential candidate (and his constant critic) Hillary Clinton’s self-congratulatory post from one year ago, in which she called herself the “future president” during the 2016 presidential race.

Less than a month after her birthday, Donald Trump won the election, defeating Clinton with 56 percent of the Electoral College votes.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Las Vegas Shooter’s Laptop Missing Its Hard Drive

A laptop computer recovered from the Las Vegas hotel room where Stephen Paddock launched the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was missing its hard drive, depriving investigators of a potential key source of information on why he killed and maimed so many people, ABC News has learned.

Paddock is believed to have removed the hard drive before fatally shooting himself, and the missing device has not yet been recovered, sources told ABC News.

Investigators digging into Paddock’s background also learned he purchased software designed to erase files from a hard drive, but without the hard drive to examine it is impossible to know if he ever used the software, one source said.

The absence of substantial digital clues has left investigators struggling to piece together what triggered Paddock to kill 58 innocent concertgoers and injure more than 500 others on Oct. 1…

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Man Died of Flesh Eating Bacteria After Helping With Hurricane Harvey Relief

Two months after making landfall in Texas, Hurricane Harvey has claimed another victim. This time, a man who helped repair flooded homes has died after contracting a flesh-eating bacteria.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

New Hampshire: Why Are Police Ignoring Evidence That Mosque is Preaching Jihad? (Video)

In this new video, I explain what happened when an investigator found that a New Hampshire mosque was preaching jihad: instead of investigating, police cried “Islamophobia”.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Police Search for Driver Who Ran Down Pedestrians

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) — Rapid City police are searching for a driver who ran down people on a sidewalk near the Roosevelt Swim Center about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Police say the driver, in a white 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer, left the swim enter parking lot, drove onto the sidewalk near the basketball courts and attempted to run over pedestrians. One person was seriously injured when hit by the car.

The suspect vehicle was last seen northbound on Waterloo Street with two men and a woman inside. The vehicle has significant damage to the passenger side front bumper and is missing a portion of the passenger side rear quarter panel. There is also damage to the front driver’s side of the car and the driver’s side tail light was last seen dangling loose.

Anyone with information about the vehicle’s location or about the incident should call police immediately at 394-4131.

           — Hat tip: Dean [Return to headlines]
 

Poll: Gillespie Takes a Huge Lead in Virginia Governor Race

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has a huge lead on Democratic candidate Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam two weeks before the election, according to a new poll.

Gillespie leads Northam by 8 points, 41 to 33 percent, among likely voters in a Hampton University Center for Public Policy poll released Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Senator McCain Helped Fund FBI Plot to Frame Trump

New evidence from court documents and intelligence sources combine to show the unthinkable: U.S. Senator John McCain colluded with the FBI and possibly the DNC to sandbag President Donald Trump, before and after the 2016 election.

And McCain is from the same political party as President Trump. Allegedly.

True Pundit broke a story weeks ago that ex-FBI chief James Comey’s FBI funded the bogus Trump dossier to the tune of $100K+ with the help of McCain who brokered the deal. The revelations the FBI paid for the dossier were also confirmed by Judicial Watch.

But now court documents and new source Intel raise suspicions that McCain may have chipped in financially with the FBI or privately funded the counterfeit research, either himself or through his shady foundation.

Regardless, the research firm of former spooks — Fusion GPS who commissioned the problematic report — could have been paid for the same report by the multiple entities:

The FBI, through a black-budget fund as reported by True Pundit John McCain campaign coffers and connections McCain’s foundation: Arizona State University’s McCain Institute for International Leadership Hillary Clinton-backed campaign operatives who paid $1 million for the research Ye olde triple dip by Fusion GPS. Smart profit model perhaps especially while peddling a very poor product and when it comes to cutting deals with Comey, the FBI and McCain: a lesson in who not to do business with.

According to a court document (attached at URL) in a British lawsuit against the author of the Fusion GPS report, Christopher Steele, McCain along with a man named David Kramer were the first people to obtain the Trump dossier.

Kramer, a virtual mystery man before the election, previously worked for the State Department under Hillary Clinton. During the 2016 election, Kramer reportedly worked as senior director for Arizona State University’s McCain Institute for International Leadership.

McCain and Kramer shopped the damaging dossier to the U.S. media with hopes the press would jump on the opportunity to smear Trump. These included: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Yahoo News, the New Yorker and CNN and others. Only lowly liberal rag sheet Mother Jones took the poisoned bait and sprinted to publish portions of the dossier…

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

South Dakota: Muslim Who Made Threatening Gun Video at Christian Conference

A Sioux Falls man who carried firearms into an April rally told a federal judge on Monday that he was heartbroken about charges brought against him and urged him to “act justly” in handing down his sentence.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Ypsilanti Suspect Linked to Islamic State Group

Detroit — An Ypsilanti man arrested by the FBI’s counterterrorism team in August said he was an Islamic State supporter, admitting he made pipe bombs and watched terrorist propaganda videos, according to federal records obtained by The Detroit News.

Yousef Mohammad Ramadan also boasted that committing a terrorist attack in the United States is easy compared to overseas.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Bad Rabbit Ransomware: ‘This is a Targeted Attack’

The Bad Rabbit ransomware is spreading across Europe not long after the WannaCry and NotPetya outbreaks. But Bad Rabbit is a “targeted attack” with widespread implications.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Catalonia Crisis Sparks Tourism Alert

TOURISTS travelling to Barcelona have been warned “civil riots” could break out in the city as tensions between Catalonia and Madrid soar over the battle for independence.

Costa Cruises has been handing out pamphlets to its customers, particularly on its liners Costa Diadema and Costa Fascinosa, which dock in the Catalan capital, warning them of civil unrest in the region.

The Italian company’s leaflet reads: “There can be demonstrations of political character announced with short notice or without prior notice”.

The leaflet, which is headed with the words “civil riots”, advises travellers to avoid getting involved in “large political concentrations in the vicinity of Government buildings, dependencies of the Security Forces and symbolic places”.

It also warns tourists not to visit “remote places or districts or buildings with restricted access”.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

EU Ripped Apart by Catalonia: Former French PM Warns Independence Will Open Pandora’s Box

CATALONIA’S independence crisis could rip Spain apart and lead to the destruction of Europe, France’s former prime minister believes.

Manuel Valls said European Union (EU) member states would be less powerful and urged nations to back the Spanish government’s decision to take control of Catalonia and kick outs its leader Carles Puigdemont.

Mr Valls, originally from Barcelona, told the French television channel France 2: “Dismembering a member state like Spain will inevitably lead to the dismemberment of Europe.

“An independent Catalonia could weaken nation states, but could also progressively weaken the European Union and open a Pandora’s box of problems that could dislocate the bloc.

“French and European leaders, including myself, must speak out against Catalan independence, and let people know that the crisis poses a real threat to the European order. It is for this reason that we must back the central government in Madrid.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Finnish Interior Minister Invites Tariq Ramadan, (Accused of Rape) To Helsinki Panel Discussion on Islam/Radicalization Prevention…

Somehow the name of Ramadan and the “prevention of radicalization” shouldn’t belong in the same sentence, unless the former is already serving a sentence for radicalization.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

French Catalans Set Up Safe Houses So Puigdemont Can Rule Government in Exile

FRENCH separatists have offered to host Catalan president Carles Puigdemont so that he can lead a “government in exile”, in the event that the secessionist leader and other pro-independence officials are forced to seek refuge from Madrid.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy Rupturing as More Regions Want Independent Powers From Rome

After the regions of Veneto and Lombardy overwhelmingly backed more independence in a Sunday referendum, two more regions could request further powers.

Northern region Emilia-Romagna will demand further autonomy without holding a referendum, while southeastern Puglia is also viewed as a likely candidate for greater independence.

The President of Emilia-Romagna has already agreed to negotiate greater powers for the state with Italy’s Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Over by Christmas? EU Holds Breath as As Far-Right Party Set for Coalition in Austria

The European Union (EU) is watching on nervously as Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz moves towards a deal with the historically anti-EU and anti-migrant party, declaring he wanted a deal signed by Christmas.

His People’s Party (OVP) stormed to victory as the most popular party in last week’s parliamentary election but still require a partner in order to form a stable government.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The EU Lectures Journalists About PC Reporting

by Bruce Bawer

[…] “Inform your audience,” the report urges journalists, “about the reasons why people feel compelled to leave their homelands, and investigate what connections there may be to policies and practices of European states.” Possibly, however, a massive percentage of the Muslims pouring into certain European states are doing so because of those states’ “policies and practices” — namely, their readiness to start handing immigrant families large sums of cash the minute they arrive, to set them up with free housing, furnishings, etc., and to allow them to stay on the dole for the rest of their lives. Many of those countries are more generous to Muslim newcomers than they are to their own citizens who have fallen on hard times; immigrants often go to the front of the line, while elderly citizens of some of these countries — people who have worked hard and paid into the welfare system since the world was young — have been turned out of their homes in order to accommodate newly-arrived Muslim families.

But these obviously are not the “policies and practices” to which the “Respect Words” document is referring. Quite the opposite. The transparent implication here is that Muslim refugees and asylum seekers are fleeing conditions for which they and others in their countries of origin hold no responsibility whatsoever and that can, in fact, ultimately be traced back to Western wrongdoing, whether in the last generation or centuries ago. Never mind that Muslims took over Persia, the Byzantine Empire, all of North Africa and the Middle East, Greece, Northern Cyprus, much of Eastern Europe, and Southern Spain. Ultimately, everything that is wrong with the Muslim world is seemingly the fault of the West, so Europeans owe all incomers a new life — and perhaps even a new country — peaceably handed over to them so that they can import sharia law?

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Another Rotherham Grooming Gang in Court for Raping Young Girls

A gang of 12 mostly-Muslim men from the Rotherham area have appeared in court to face 45 sexual abuse offences against eight girls under the age of 16.

The men are accused of rape, indecent assault, the supply of controlled drugs, and false imprisonment as part of Operation Stovewood, which was set up in the wake of the Rotherham grooming gang scandal.

The men, all aged between 33 and 38, allegedly committed the crimes between 1998 and 2003, The Star reports.

Amjal Rafiq, 38, Nabeel Kurshid, 34, Iqlak Yousaf, 33, Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, 36, Tanweer Ali, 36, Aftab Hussain, 38, and Abid Saddiq, 36, all appeared at Sheffield Magistrates Court Wednesday.

They were joined by co-defendants Sharaz Hussain, 33, Salah Ahmed El-Hakam, 38, Mohammed Ashan, 33, Masaeud Malik, 33, and Waseem Khaliq, 33.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

UK: College Correctly Bans Faced Covered Islamic Supremacist at Open Evening Event…

A Muslim mother-of-face was ordered to leave a sixth-form college open evening because she was wearing a niqab face veil.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Former BBC Chief News Correspondent Takes Aim at Citizen Journalism

“In some ways this explosion of technology has not led to an improvement in some areas. What is fake news? Some of it is the mix coming from those popular social media sites were gossip and rumours is mixed into news sites.

“Fake news is what President Trump does not like. It is a very interesting definition. News never pleases everyone and comes from all corners of the population from a democratic state. Mr Trump is possibly one of the more dangerous thing in the media world, where he is leading his supporters to believe that the entire mainstream media are putting up fake news.

“It is terrifying. Fake news shows a kind of contempt to the democratic system. The system has relied on free speech, the importance of the individual citizen and the individual citizen’s rights.

“Democracy needs the press. I feel this so strongly, you cannot have a state which calls itself a democracy without a free press. That press needs to be supported, even if you don’t like its views, it has a job. In a democracy, it is the old adage that the press tells truth to power. We try to fulfil it and it is enormously important.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

‘You’ve Left Us No Option’ Catalonia Will be Forced to Declare Republic Fumes Leader

SPAIN has given Catalonia no option but to declare a republic, the region’s vice-president has fumed.

Oriol Junqueras has given the biggest indication yet that Catalonia is poised to formally declare independence in defiance of Spain who is set to impose strict control of the north east region by invoking Article 155 of the Spanish constitution.

The left-wing (Esquerra) politician, 48, told the Associated Press the Spanish government, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had left Catalonia “no other option” but to proclaim a new republic.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Thanks to Obama, America is Two Steps Behind Iran in Middle East

by John R. Bolton

[…] Had the incoming Trump administration immediately reversed Barack Obama’s support for the Baghdad government, effectively a satellite of Tehran’s mullahs, we would not be, as we are now, objectively supporting Iran’s hegemonic regional ambitions. President Trump did order a faster operations tempo against ISIS, and made significant changes in the rules of engagement for U.S. military activities.

Unfortunately, however, he was apparently not given the option to dump Obama’s strategy of relying on regular Iraqi government troops and Shia militia, both dominated by Iran. Of course, Iraqi and Syrian Kurds could not have defeated ISIS alone, despite receiving U.S. advice and equipment and carrying a major part of the hostilities. The new administration should have pressed other Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in addition to Syrian opposition forces, to take more substantial military roles.

The result is that, today, as the ISIS caliphate disintegrates, Iran has established an arc of control from Iran through Iraq to Assad’s regime in Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. If this disposition of forces persists, Iran will have an invaluable geo-strategic position for possible future use against Israel, Jordan or the Arabian Peninsula’s oil-producing monarchies. Thanks to Obama and the bureaucracy, the United States seemingly has no post-Raqqa politico-military policy, allowing Iran greater regional dominance by default.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Rohingya Refugee Crisis: The Role of Islamist Terrorists

Although the media has extensively covered the Burmese Army’s expulsion of Muslim Rohingya people from Rakhine Province in Myanmar — and although no one is recommending the horrors of murder or mass expulsions — little attention has been paid to Rohingya ties to international Islamic terrorism.

Aided by foreign terrorist networks in Pakistan and support from Rohingya exiles in Arab Gulf States, Myanmar’s Islamists and their foreign backers ultimately may want to establish a sharia state in Rakhine.

Approximately 1.1 million Rohingya live in Rakhine, a coastal province in Myanmar (Burma). Almost all are Muslim; their language closely resembles Bengali, the tongue of Bangladesh, to their north. Some Rohingya have lived in Rakhine since the 15th century. Most, however, trace their residency in Myanmar to the late 19th century, as descendants of Muslim Bengalis who were moved there by British colonial decree.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Muslim Father Charged With Funding Islamic State Was ‘In Regular Contact With Feared Foreign Jihadist in Syria’ — As He’s Refused Bail

A Melbourne man charged with funding Islamic State fighters in Syria faces at least three months in custody after a magistrate rejected a bail bid backed even by prosecutors.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Austria Arrests Migrant Suspected of 70 Murders

Austrian and Hungarian police have detained a Pakistani migrant suspected of killing around 70 people in his home country, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

The man attempted to enter Hungary with a large group of migrants along Hungary’s southern border, Reuters reports. Authorities received a tip that the man was heading for Austria and authorities from both countries cooperated to arrest the suspect, identified only by his initials A.Z.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

French Police Incapable of Stopping Calais Migrants Making Bid for Britain — Shock Report

FRENCH police are incapable of getting rid of or stopping Calais migrants making a bid for Britain, a scathing report has found.

The shocking revelation comes in an official report which suggests another sprawling Jungle camp will open at the borders again.

The news will come as a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron who vowed to speed up the deportation process of illegal immigrants in France.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

German Mainstream Media Calls Migrant Crime Area ‘No-Gone Zone’

A new report claims that migrant youth gangs in the Ebertplatz area of Cologne are becoming increasingly violent, leading some to describe the area as turning into a no-go zone.

Authorities in the Eberplatz area say that in recent months young migrants from the Middle East and Africa have turned the place into a no-go zone once the sun goes down. Over just the past nine months, police have been involved in around 3,000 incidents in the area ranging from simple stop and search to the murder of a 22-year-old African migrant last Saturday evening, Die Welt reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Islands Bursting at the Seams

The latest spike in migrant arrivals in Greece has caught the government off guard, with critics saying it has no plan of action as the situation has become reminiscent of the crisis at the end of 2015, when thousands of people flooded into the country.

Without a concrete plan, government officials are reportedly hoping for bad weather to save the day and limit arrivals.

In the last week, 1,194 people arrived on Greece’s Aegean islands from the coast of Turkey, adding to the thousands of asylum seekers who have been trapped at camps for months and showing increasing signs of frustration, with protests and scuffles becoming all the more frequent.

“Incidents and troubles are everyday life for us. Now people are sleeping on the streets or in Sappho Square in the city center,” Lesvos Mayor Spyridon Galinos told Kathimerini. …

“We urge [Tsipras] to put an end to the ongoing ‘containment policy’ of trapping asylum seekers on the islands… and to immediately transfer asylum seekers to the mainland and meet their protection needs,” the groups said.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to head for the Greek mainland until their asylum applications are processed.

The groups that called on Tsipras to take action include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Rescue Committee and Oxfam.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Maryland: Muslim Immigrant & Developer Face Lawsuit for Selling Homes to Muslims Only

JOPPATOWNE, Md. — Dueling legal complaints and allegations of Islamophobia have marred an unfinished retirement community after homes were sold only to Muslims.

           — Hat tip: Charles Low [Return to headlines]
 

Pro-Migrant NGOs Call for Greece to Release Migrants Onto Mainland

Pro-migrant NGOs working at asylum centres on the Greek islands in the Aegean are calling for the government to release the migrants to the mainland citing poor conditions and overcrowding in the asylum camps.

Nineteen different NGOs have written and delivered a letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asking the government to end the internment of migrants on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, and Samos. The letter calls for the migrants to be allowed to travel to the mainland of Greece for better quality accommodation, Der Standard reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Dislike’ And ‘Unfriendliness’ Can be Hate Crimes, UK Police Confirm

Official guidelines insist a hate crime must be driven by “hostility”, but when contacted, many UK forces are unable to give a definition of what they mean by “hostility” in the context of hate crimes.

Breitbart London contacted dozens of forces to ask for their working definition of “hostility” and was referred on to the “dictionary definition” which includes “unfriendliness” and “dislike”.

Others referred Breitbart London to national bodies, including the College of Policing (CoP) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which both admit there is an “absence of a precise legal definition of hostility”, with the latter also referring individual forces onto “dictionary definitions” for the purpose of investigating hate crimes.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Europe: Journalists Against Free Speech

by Judith Bergman

The European Federation of Journalists (EJF), “the largest organization of journalists in Europe, represents over 320,000 journalists in 71 journalists’ organizations across 43 countries,” according to its website. The EJF, a powerful player, also leads a Europe-wide campaign called “Media against Hate.”

The “Media against Hate” campaign aims to:

“counter hate speech[1] and discrimination in the media, both on and offline… media and journalists play a crucial role in informing…policy … regarding migration and refugees. As hate speech and stereotypes targeting migrants proliferate across Europe… #MediaAgainstHate campaign aims to: improve media coverage related to migration, refugees, religion and marginalised groups… counter hate speech, intolerance, racism and discrimination… improve implementation of legal frameworks regulating hate speech and freedom of speech…”

Gone is all pretense that journalism is about reporting the facts. These are the aims of a political actor. …

Why do journalists, who claim to fight for the freedom of the press, now appeal to the EU to help bring an end to freedom of speech in Europe?

According to the guidelines, journalists should, among other things:

“Provide an appropriate range of opinions, including those belonging to migrants and members of minorities, but… not… extremist perspectives just to ‘show the other side’… Avoid directly reproducing hate speech; when it is newsworthy to do so, mediate it by…challenging such speech, and exposing any false premises it relies on. Remember that sensitive information (eg race and ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, party affiliation or union affiliation, health and sexual information) should only be mentioned when it is necessary for the public’s understanding of the news”.

Is that why news reports always refer to perpetrators of rape or terrorism simply as “men”?

Specifically, with regard to Muslims, the guidelines recommend:

“Challenge existing anti-Muslim stereotypes that have become pervasive in public discourse… Increase the visibility of Muslim men and women in your general reporting… Take care not to further stigmatise terms such as ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islam’ by associating them with particular acts… Don’t allow extremists’ claims about acting ‘in the name of Islam’ to stand unchallenged. Highlight… the diversity of Muslim communities… where it is necessary and newsworthy to report hateful comments against Muslims, mediate the information. Challenge any false premises on which such comments rely”.

Not even Orwell could have made that up.

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

Prominent Conservative Artists Blacklisted Because of Involvement With Alt Hero Comics Series

Timothy Lim, a talented freelance professional illustrator and cover artist, has been fired from Mount Olympus comics because he took a job to create the cover for the subversive right-wing comic series AltHero.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Theresa May Insists ‘Pregnant Women’ Term ‘Acceptable’ After Government’s Transgender Request to UN

Theresa May believes using the term “pregnant women” is perfectly “acceptable” after reports the Government requested it not be used by the United Nations because it excludes transgender people.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has confirmed that it made a request to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) not to exclude transgender people from an important treaty.

But a Downing Street spokesman has moved to downplay the significance of the request and said: “Of course pregnant women is an acceptable term.”

           — Hat tip: Dora [Return to headlines]
 

UK’s Hateful Hate-Crime Hub

by Douglas Murray

[…] Someone who is transgender, for instance, may well be referred to unpleasantly by somebody online. If someone says they will kill him, that this is already a crime. What, however, if someone simply asks, for instance, what their chromosomes are? What if the “trans” person says he is unwilling to concede that chromosomes matter, and it is how he identifies them — and that alone — that matters. Can anyone daring to express dissent against this — or any popular — view be reported for “trolling”, “abusing” and “committing a hate crime”? Will material which says that chromosomes matter be removed from the internet? It is hard to see how it could remain available, able as it is to cause such deep upset and potential cries of “hate”.

Consider furthermore what might happen if someone — anyone — were to go along with the official line that Islamism is a major problem but differed with the official view — which is that this Islamism has no connection with the peaceable and popular religion of Islam. What if they expressed this concern or thought? It is not inconceivable that somebody one day might? How then will the authorities view this? Is it hate? Can things that are hateful also be true? And if so, which do we prioritise: “hateful” facts or “hate-less” lies?

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

400 Scientific Papers Published in 2017 Support a Skeptical Position on Climate Alarm

During the first 10 months of 2017, 400 scientific papers have been published that cast doubt on the position that anthropogenic CO2 emissions function as the climate’s fundamental control knob…or that otherwise question the efficacy of climate models or the related “consensus” positions commonly endorsed by policymakers and mainstream media.

These 400 new papers support the position that there are significant limitations and uncertainties inherent in our understanding of climate and climate changes. Climate science is not settled.

Modern temperatures, sea levels, and extreme weather events are neither unusual nor unprecedented. Many regions of the Earth are cooler now than they have been for most of the last 10,000 years.

We should have seen it coming

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

‘Dark Future’ IMF Boss Warns Earth Will ‘Toasted and Roasted’ Due to Climate Change

CHRISTINE Lagarde has said the world faces a “dark future” unless it gets to grips with climate change as well as inequality.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told an economic conference in the Saudia Arabian capital Riyadh: “If we don’t do anything about climate change now, in 50 years’ time we will be toasted, roasted and grilled.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]
 

The Global Warming Thought Police Want Climate Skeptics in ‘Jail’

Conform or else! That’s the message of the global warming alarmists. Those who don’t buy into the man-made climate change narrative should be prosecuted as criminals.

“Put officials who reject science in jail,” someone named Brad Johnson who says he’s executive director of something called Climate Hawks Vote tweeted last month. …

And then there’s Bill Nye, the Junk Science Guy, who hasn’t been able to cover up his apparent desire to see “criminal investigations” against those ignoring his truth. It’s not hard to see through him, though. He dissembles like a politician but his appetite is clear. …

Maybe the worst case of zealotry from one who refuses to see his own intolerance is British funnyman Eric Idle, who tweeted earlier this year that the skeptics who hold their position due to “stupidity and ignorance” should be punished “humanely. Put down gently.” Idle, we can’t forget, was part of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which was responsible the famous line: “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.”

           — Hat tip: AF [Return to headlines]